Foreign born

Foreign born (also non-native) people are those born outside of their country of residence. Foreign born are often non-citizens, but many are naturalized citizens of the country that they live in and others are citizens by descent, typically through a parent.

The term foreign born encompasses both immigrants and expatriates but is not synonymous with either. Foreign born may, like immigrants, have committed to living in a country permanently or, like expatriates, live abroad for a significant period with the plan to return to their birth-country eventually.

The status of foreign born — particularly their access to citizenship — differs globally. The large groups of foreign born guest workers in Arab states of the Persian Gulf, for example, have no right to citizenship no matter the length of their residence. In Canada and the United States, by contrast, foreign born are often citizens or in the process of becoming citizens. Certain countries have intermediary rules: in Germany and Japan it is often difficult but not impossible for the foreign born to become citizens.

Trends by country

The percentage of foreign born in a country is the product mostly of immigration rates, but is also affected by emigration rates and birth and death rates in the destination country. For example, the United Kingdom and Ireland are destination countries for migrants from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, but are themselves source countries for immigration to other Anglosphere countries. The countries with the highest rates of immigration are wealthy countries with relatively open nationality or migration laws including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Persian Gulf States.

The largest foreign-born population in the world is in the United States, which was home to 39 million foreign-residents in 2012, or 12.6% of the population.^[1] The highest percentage of foreign-born residents occurs in small, wealthy countries with large numbers of temporary foreign workers, such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the population of each is, depending on the economy at the time, around 80%.^[2] In 2010, the Migration Policy Institute reported that the largest percentages were Qatar (86.5%) and UAE (70%).^[3]

Cities with largest foreign born populations

Rank	City	Country	Estimate Source	Foreign-Born Population
1	New York City	United States	2014 ACS	3,160,471[4]
2	London	United Kingdom	ONS 2014	3,082,000[5]
3	Toronto	Canada	Canada 2011 Census	1,512,230
4	Los Angeles	United States	2011 ACS	1,489,640
5	Houston	United States	2011 ACS	593,412
6	Chicago	United States	2011 ACS	579,127
7	Montreal	Canada	Canada 2011 Census	536,738
8	Paris	France	INSEE	436,576
9	San Francisco	United States	2011 ACS	382,463
10	San Jose	United States	2011 ACS	378,867
11	San Diego	United States	2011 ACS	350,768
11	Dallas	United States	2011 ACS	310,142
12	Vancouver	Canada	Canada 2006 Census	260,760[6]
13	Milan	Italy	Istat 2011	236,855[7]
14	Birmingham	United Kingdom	ONS 2014	222,000[5]
15	Ottawa	Canada	Canada 2006 Census	178,545[8]
16	Boston	United States	2010 United States Census	167,311
17	Washington DC	United States	2010 United States Census	83,429

Metropolitan regions with largest foreign born populations

Rank[9]	City	Country	Foreign-Born Pop
1	New York metropolitan area	United States	5,656,000[10]
2	Los Angeles metropolitan area	United States	4,421,000[10]
3	London and Home Counties	United Kingdom	4,051,502[5]
4	Hong Kong (SAR)	Hong Kong	2,793,450
5	Toronto metropolitan area	Canada	2,512,373[11]
6	Paris metropolitan area	France	2,429,223[12]
7	Miami metropolitan area	United States	1,949,629
8	Sydney Greater Statistical Area	Australia	1,759,129
9	Chicago metropolitan area	United States	1,625,649
10	Singapore (city only)	Singapore	1,305,011
11	San Francisco metropolitan area	United States	1,201,209
12	Melbourne Metropolitan area	Australia	1,200,000 [13]
13	Moscow (city only)	Russia	1,128,035
14	Houston metropolitan area	United States	1,113,875
15	Metropolitan Dubai	United Arab Emirates	1,056,000
16	Riyadh (city only)	Saudi Arabia	1,054,000
17	Washington metropolitan area	United States	1,017,432
18	Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex	United States	1,016,221

Miscellaneous regions with high percentage of foreign born population

Rank>	City	Country	Percent	Largest Source of Immigrants
1	Dubai	United Arab Emirates	82	India
2	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	66 [14]	France
3	Santa Ana, CA	United States	53	Mexico
4	Daly City, CA	United States	52	Philippines
5	Toronto	Canada	52* [15]	Europe  People's Republic of China  India  Philippines
6	Miami	United States	51 [16]	Cuba
7	Queens, NY	United States	48	People's Republic of China /  India
8	Muscat	Oman	45	India
9	Singapore	Singapore	43	Malaysia,  People's Republic of China,  India,  Indonesia
10	Vancouver	Canada	40	Hong Kong
11	Geneva	Switzerland	39	Portugal[17]
12	Auckland	New Zealand	39	United Kingdom

• Toronto was estimated to be higher at the 2011 census. After Statistics Canada, the national statistics agency, made the National Household Survey optional following the 2006 census it was estimated that minority groups would be less likely to respond to the survey. Furthermore, the statistics are less likely to represent the large communities of temporary foreign workers and international students in Toronto.^[18]

See also

• Alien (law)
• Expatriate
• Immigration
• Naturalization
• Finishing School
• Foreign-born Japanese
• Immigrant generations

References

1. United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey - March 2012 Detailed Tables, Table 1.1. Accessed September 6, 2014.
2. "UAE flatly rejects citizenship for foreign workers".
3. "Data Hub". migrationpolicy.org.
4. "Place of Birth by Year of Entry by Citizenship Status for the Foreign-Born Population - Universe: Foreign-born population 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates New York City". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
5. "Population of the United Kingdom by Country of Birth and Nationality".
6. "Community Profiles from the 2006 Census, Statistics Canada - Census Subdivision". statcan.ca. 13 March 2007.
7. Archived January 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
8. "Community Profiles from the 2006 Census, Statistics Canada - Census Subdivision". statcan.ca. 13 March 2007.
9. "Data Hub". migrationpolicy.org.
10. Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova (April 14, 2016). "U.S. Immigrant Population by Metropolitan Area". Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
11. "2006 Census: Immigration in Canada: A Portrait of the Foreign-born Population, 2006 Census: Immigrants in metropolitan areas: Vast majority of immigrants chose city life". statcan.ca. 4 December 2007.
12. INSEE. "Répartition de la population de la France par région de naissance et région de résidence en 2008". Retrieved 2012-01-29.
13. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0main+features102014
14. "Luxemburger Wort". Wort.lu.
15. "National Household Survey (NHS) Profile, 2011". statcan.gc.ca.
16. "Miami-Dade County QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau". census.gov.
17. Mémento statistique du canton de Genève 2010, p. 1
18. "National Household Survey: Immigration dramatically changing makeup of Toronto and Canada". thestar.com. 8 May 2013.

External links

• ForeignBorn - a resource for entering and living in the USA
• USA Census Bureau on foreign born population
• Luxembourg – Country Summary
• Migration article from U.C. Davis